Water quality is a national agenda.

April 26, 2019
By Robert Coleman

This week EWG released a report and map documenting widespread bacteria contamination of private drinking-water wells across Iowa. Focusing on two ubiquitous agricultural contaminants, coliform bacteria and nitrate, we mapped nearly 55,000 tested private wells in the state – 22,000 of which had at least one positive test for either contaminant.

Des Moines Water Works (click here) has struggled for years to provide safe drinking water to its customers, battling nitrate contamination from upstream farms. But contamination from agricultural practices may be even worse for the estimated 230,000 to 290,000 Iowans whose drinking water comes from private wells, an investigation by Environmental Working Group and Iowa Environmental Council finds....

Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Andrew Wheeler released the Trump administration’s proposed plan to clean up toxic fluorinated chemicals known as PFAS throughout the nation. EWG believes EPA’s plan falls short in many ways.

“This proposal is not a serious response to a drinking water contamination crisis that has already ballooned out of control,” said EWG Senior Scientist David Andrews. “It is a Band-Aid, at best, that does essentially nothing to help the hundreds – perhaps thousands – of communities, in almost every state, with contaminated tap water. Americans need real and swift action to address this crisis, not more toothless proposals from the Trump administration.”...

There are enormous problems with water quality all over the country. it is important we get it right. Having to purchase water to protect one's health is a tax on average citizens.

We have seen in Flint how an impoverished community relies on clean water coming from the water faucet in their homes. When that falls apart the people's lives are in danger. The reason without a doubt in these emergencies is the lack of monies DEDICATED to protecting clean water in the USA.

The Obama Administration took great pains in creating a rule no one likes to begin the process of ending poor water quality. It was called "Waters of the USA." Iowa is an example of how poor water practices result in contaminated wells that are of no use to these folks.

Iowans have a real problem. They need a real solution and solutions on this scale are not cheap.

When knowing where water comes from in this country, it's quality and the geologicals of it all, there is no one like USGS that has records and a history of providing safe water sources for the American people. If they are asked direct questions, they will provide direct answers. They have professional standards. If the current USGS personnel are inhibited for some Trumpian reason, there are scores of retired folks that can't wait to provide help if asked.

Roughly 60 percent (click here) of global groundwater use is for irrigation; most of the rest is used in households and industry. Groundwater uses vary significantly by country, and partly depend on climate. In some countries with abundant rainfall, such as Indonesia and Thailand, irrigation needs are very low, so household water supply is the main use for groundwater. Globally, over 2 billion people use groundwater as a source of drinking water. In some more arid countries such as Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, and Syria, irrigation accounts for 90 percent of groundwater use.

The U.S. Geological Survey publishes data on water use in the United States every five years. In 2015, the main uses for groundwater in the United States were irrigation (68%) and public supply (18%). Although over 13 million households in the United States get their water from private wells, this accounts for only 4 percent of all groundwater used in the United States. Other minor uses include livestock, aquaculture, mining, and self-supplied industrial use....

The species of concern this week is the Short - Eared Owl, "Asio fammeus."

Isn't he beautiful. Owls are raptors. This is the male with his white belly and dark wings. The white belly helps hide him against the sky and dark wing feathers hide him among the forest trees.

The female is brown to protect her while nesting.

Imagine adding this beautiful owl to a birding list as observed. In New York State it is considered Endangered. I doubt many people can find it.

Short-eared Owls (click here) are medium size owls with small ear tufts on the top of the head. They have round, beige facial disks similar to those of barn owls. The underparts are white/buffy (male) or tawny/rust (female), and streaked with brown, while the back is brown and mottled with white. When perched, the wings extend beyond the tail and in flight, the undersides of the wings show dark markings on the wrists and wing tips. The Short-eared Owl's flight is frequently described as "moth or bat-like" because it flies low over grasslands or marshes, moving back and forth with unhurried, irregular wing beats.

Short-eared Owls are the most diurnal of all the northeastern owls. They are most often observed in the late afternoon and at dawn or dusk. These birds eat primarily small mammals, but they occasionally take small birds and the young sometimes eat insects. When hunting, they dive from perches or fly low over the ground and pounce on prey from above, sometimes hovering briefly before they drop....

...Although there are scattered breeding records in the east as far south as Virginia, New York is at the southern edge of this owl's breeding range. Northern populations are believed to be highly migratory, and there is a marked increase in the number of birds in New York in the fall and spring. Short-eared Owls are more common as winter residents in New York State. As breeders they are very rare, being largely limited to the St. Lawrence and Lake Champlain Valleys, the Great Lakes plains and the marshes of Long Island's south shore....

Look at that map. The Short Eared Owl is not only endangered in the State of New York, but, the entire country of the USA. The bird needs to be federally listed and a plan to return populations to the USA must be engaged. It is not okay to eliminate species from an entire country because they are largely metropolitan throughout the world. Canada does not have these problems and WINTERING OVER GROUNDS are just as important as breeding grounds.

Water quality is a huge concern across the USA. This is one case that requires a citizen's lawsuit to enforce the law.

April 25, 2019
By Peggy Kirk Hall, director of agricultural law, Ohio State University Agricultural and Resource Law Program

April 22, 2018 (click here) - Research into Lake Erie's toxic algae shows no clear decrease in the pollutants feeding the persistent blooms during the past five years, according to an Ohio Environmental Protection Agency report.

...Lucas County (click here) alleges that the U.S. EPA has failed in its Clean Water Act obligations by allowing Ohio to refuse to prepare TMDLs for the western basin of Lake Erie. Even after another court battle forced the designation of the western basin as “impaired,” the county explains, Ohio’s EPA declared the western basin to be a low priority for TMDL development and has not yet proposed either TMDLs or an alternative plan for addressing the basin’s impaired water status. Lucas County argues that since Ohio has not established TMDLs for the impaired waters of Lake Erie, the U.S. EPA must step in and do so.

The county also contends that the lack of state and federal action on the impaired waters status of the western basin has forced Lucas County to expend significant resources to maintain and monitor Lake Erie water quality for its residents. According to Lucas County, such actions and costs would be unnecessary or substantially reduced if the U.S. EPA had fulfilled its legal obligations to ensure the preparation of TMDLs for the western basin.

Agricultural pollution is an explicit concern in the county’s complaint. The development of TMDLs for the western basin would focus needed attention and remedial measures on pollution from agricultural operations, Lucas County states. The county asserts that TMDLs would establish a phosphorous cap for the western basin and methods of ensuring compliance with the cap, which would in turn address the harm and costs of continued harmful algal bloom problems in Lake Erie.

The remedy Lucas County requests is for the federal court to order the U.S. EPA to either prepare or order the Ohio EPA to prepare TMDLs for all harmful nutrients in the western basin, including phosphorous. The county also asks the court to retain its jurisdiction over the case for continued monitoring to ensure the establishment of an effective basin-wide TMDL....         

This is Lake George in New York State. You won't find lumber floating in the lake.

The Lake George Association (click here) protects Lake George water. Your membership in the LGA ensures a bright, clean future for our Lake!


The people of Lake George are concerned about their water quality. How do they protect their water? I mean that is a huge lake. Notice the forests surrounding the lake? That is how they assure themselves of a healthy lake because the forest, the contiguous forest provides SERVICES to the lake that cannot be duplicated. Below are their words, not mine.

Forests create an absorptive sponge (click here) that reduces the amount of runoff and pollutants entering the Lake. When forest areas are fragmented by buildings, driveways, roads, lawns, and other land use activities, the nature of the forest changes and its ability to absorb rainfall is reduced. Increased light along fragmented edges increases the opportunity for vines and invasive species to grow. Long thin areas of forest, with more edge conditions (as exist along many driveways), are less healthy and less capable of absorbing and intercepting rainfall than the same area with fewer edge conditions. Continued fragmentation ultimately leads to deforestation as isolated areas of trees decline and eventually convert to lawn. Contiguous forest areas create wildlife corridors and habitat....

In the early days the area was logged heavily, but, the area was not densely populated by people.

...However, (click here) the quick growth of the logging industry in the state resulted in a decimated landscape. In the 1860s during the peak of New York’s logging industry, environmentalist George Perkins Marsh understood the danger of deforestation, writing that,

We have now felled forest enough everywhere, in many districts far too much. Let us restore this one element of material life to its normal proportions, and devise means for maintaining the permanence of its relations to the fields, the meadows and the pastures, to the rain and the dews of heaven, to the springs and rivulets with which it waters down the earth.

Surveyor Verplanck Colvin became an advocate for the preservation of the Adirondack region following trips there in the 1860s. After climbing Mt. Seward in October 1870, he submitted a report to the New York State Board of Regents. As Superintendent of the Adirondack Survey, Colvin urged the creation of an Adirondack Park, for “the interests of commerce and navigation demand that these forests should be preserved; and for posterity should be set aside, this Adirondack region, as a park for New York, as is the Yosemite in California and the Pacific States.”

Since the Adirondacks contained the headwaters of several important state waterways including the Hudson River, the state government began the process of setting aside land for public use and protection. In 1872 the State Park Commission was established. Legislation passed eleven years later truly began the preservation and conservation of the Adirondacks. An 1883 law prohibited sale of state lands in Adirondack counties. Also that year, the state repossessed over 600,000 acres of land for non-payment of taxes. The combination of these actions signaled the momentum for protecting the Adirondack region....

...Log driving ended on the Hudson River in 1924 and on the Moose River in 1948. The last boom for sorting logs, the Big Boom on the Hudson at Glen Falls, closed in 1952

Adirondack Park became a popular destination for outdoor recreationalists in the early twentieth century. The New Deal programs implemented during the Great Depression, specifically the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC), repaired and improved the infrastructure in state and national parks across the country. Four CCC camps were built in the Adirondacks in 1933—Fish Creek Pond in Franklin County, Bolton Landing in Warren County, Eighth Lake in Fulton County, and Speculator in Hamilton County. Work included improvement and development of campsites and trails, stream improvement, and reforestation. By 1935 the number of CCC camps in the state increased to 106, up from 69 the previous year. In order to comply with the state constitution, which required the camps be temporary structures and not require clearance of timber. All CCC camps in the park closed in 1942....

This is happening more frequently. It is called "straight line winds." They cause damage and if out in the rain when it hits can injure or worse.

The picture to the left was submitted by a community member. It is very popular to record the damage caused by these storms.

People conduct themselves differently due to the climate crisis. They want to report such events and it becomes a way to communicate about a common experience with other community members. Most people consider this type of reporting important.

April 28, 2019
By Meg Ryan

The Somers Cove Apartments in Crisfield experienced straight-line wind damage from a severe thunderstorm that occurred on Friday, April 26, 2019. Courtesy of Somerset County Emergency Services.

A severe thunderstorm (click here) brought straight line winds into Crisfield on Friday evening, causing some damage to the area, officials confirmed.

The biggest damage reported to the National Weather Service office in Wakefield, Virginia was to Somers Cove Apartments, located at 51 Somers Drive, which lost part of its roof. The straight line winds were reported to have taken the roof off of the apartment buildings around 5 p.m. on April 26, said Ryan Rodgers, meteorologist, on Sunday....

Sustainable Development Institutes. Some form of sustainable plan has to be included as an important part of a young forest. It will prevent exploitation.

Sustainable Development Institutes is an idea, not a particular non-profit organization. The idea an be used throughout any effort to protect forests. The Menominee Tribe is an American Native American Tribe. They have developed through organization and planning a SDI.

The role of the Sustainable Development Institute (SDI) (click here) is inextricably bound to principles of sustainability and Menominee values. Prompted by Menominee’s long tradition of sustainable forestry practices, tribal leaders created the Sustainable Development Institute to encourage, promote, and build upon Menominee approach to sustainable development.

The purpose of the Sustainable Development Institute is to ensure the principles of sustainability committed to by the College of Menominee Nation and integrated in our Menominee culture and values, influence the activities of our Institute, our College, our community, and our tribe. The Sustainable Development Institute supports and advances sustainable ways through a variety of initiatives.

Educating the community about sustainable ways of life

Demonstrating through research and practical projects

Creating understanding of sustainability issues, practices, opportunities, and principals through community engagement and outreach efforts

Promoting, measuring, and reporting on sound and sustainable institutional practices

Fostering collaboration within the College, tribal community, and external partners in sustainability

The College of Menominee Nation’s Sustainable Development Institute (SDI) exists as the result of tax exempt donations and grants. Please consider contributing to: Sustainable Development Institute, PO Box 1179, Keshena, WI 54135. The Institute has 501 C3 non-profit status.

There is another SDI I find interesting. It is in Liberia. It is the effort of an activist organization that holds government and other institutes and companies to their promises. Remember, the USA is the only country that is no longer involved with the Paris Accords. Organizations like this act as a watchdog so there is no backsliding to reach the commitment goals.

We are grassroots activists (click here) using technology to hold the Liberian government & corporations to their commitments

This is one of their recent news items.

The Sustainable Development Institute (SDI), (click here) Landesa, and the Land Portal Foundation are co-facilitating an online discussion on Liberia's Land Rights Bill (LRB) that may soon be voted on by the Liberian National Legislature. This discussion is also supported by Rights & Rice Foundation, Habitat for Humanity International, Oxfam, and the Land Rights Now campaign.

Background

Liberia has not yet enacted a comprehensive land law. According to existing laws, all lands not previously deeded to a private party are classified as Public Land. Since the end of civil war, Liberia's struggle to enact a land law, coupled with its weak land and natural resources management systems, contributed to tenure insecurity and an increased rate of large-scale land concessions to private investors....

These endeavors, especially in the Third World, can cause enormous issues when severe storms cause runoff into rivers and streams.

29 October 2018

The company said no one was injured (click here) and the heap leach pad, crusher and process plant did not appear to have sustained significant damage after the hurricane crossed over the mine in Sinaloa.

"While the Taunus pit is being dewatered, and until steady deliveries of consumables can be made, the company intends to process the surface stockpile located next to the crusher," Marlin said.

It said there was "presently no estimate" on how long it would take to restore road access.

"Importantly, Marlin is appropriately insured for property damage, pit dewatering, debris removal and income loss due to business interruption at the La Trinidad mine," the company said.

It had made its clinic available to the public and said it had not had to care for any serious injuries to date....

To illustrate a concern in the USA, the Cape Fear River is severely polluted since Hurricane Florence. There are now high levels of PCBs in the water of the Cape Fear River, the wildlife and the fish. It is not yet determined if the source of the pollution was contained again after the hurricane or if this is opportunistic dumping.

Below is smart thinking in rescuing people from flood waters in Mexico. This is not completely safe, however. This can be conducted while the flooding allows access, but, there is a danger in rising waters that would even make a tractor-trailer unstable if it is deep enough (click here).

29 September 2018
By Richard Davies

Flood rescue in Sinaloa, Mexico, September 2018. 

Mexico’s Ministry of Interior (click here) has issued a Disaster Declaration for 11 municipalities in the state of Sinaloa after storms brought heavy rain and severe flooding from 19 September, 2018.

The municipalities covered by the declaration are Ahome, El Fuerte, Choix, Guasave, Sinaloa, Angostura, Salvador Alvarado, Mocorito, Badiraguato, Navolato and Culiacan.

Mexico’s Servicio Meteorológico Nacional said the severe weather was caused by the passage of Tropical Depression 19-E. Sinaloa Governor, Quirino Ordaz Coppel, said in a statement that 359 mm of rain fell in Los Mochis in 24 hours to 20 September.

Around 60,000 people were left without power and 150,000 affected by interruptions to drinking water supply.

At least three people have died as a result of the severe weather. One person died after being electrocuted from fallen power cables in Los Mochis. Two people drowned after being swept away by flood water in Culiacán. Local media say more people are reported missing....

There is nothing wrong with participating in "certification" programs.

The forests in the USA, be they state or federal, are used for lumber. There are standards to protect the forests in that the harvest in the past never used clear cut and there was a ratio to maintain a healthy forest. Those ratios, depending on the forest, can be 1 to 2 or as high as 1 to 6 or more. What does the ratio mean? It means for every one tree cut, there are at least 2 or more standing. The harvested trees' girth is also measured and the tree marked with paint or colored tape to indicate it can be cut.

If you are a Chain of Custody or Forest Management Certificate Holder, (click here) you are already authorized to use the FSC trademarks. Trademark use is managed by your Certifying Body or if you are in a Group Certificate, your Group Manager.

If you are certified and have a question about trademark use, contact your Certifying Body or your Group Manager directly.

For the full trademark standard, which lays out all requirements for use of the FSC trademarks by Certificate Holders, see FSC-STD-50-001 V2-0. And for an overview, see the Quick Guide on Trademark Use for Certificate Holders.

Consumers looking for furniture are very savvy when it comes to protecting forests. They look for these chain of custody certifications. So, if a young forest is to be maintained there will be some degree of tree harvest. It will, of course, be determined by forest species of plant and animals and the impact harvesting has on them, especially in regard to mating, the birth of the offspring and the rearing of the young.

In maintaining the confidence of the public interested in protecting young forests, there is absolutely nothing wrong with camera observation. As a matter of fact, cameras can be used as an educational tool while also minimizing the presence of people to disrupt any of the animal activity or trampling of forest floor plants.

Observation cameras are great, but, ultimately the public will want personal contact. That is best scheduled with the authority supervising the young forest as a guided tour into these areas are best.

Mozambique: People trapped in rising floods as cyclone Kenneth batters c... (click here for news article - thank you)

The last estimate of the number dead from Cyclone Idai is 1000 people.

April 25, 2019

Johannesburg -- A powerful tropical cyclone (click here) is expected to make landfall by early Friday in northern Mozambique, just six weeks after Cyclone Idai devastated the central part of the country and left hundreds dead.

Mozambique is one of the world's poorest countries and Cyclone Idai wiped out crops in the southern African nation's breadbasket on the eve of harvest. Hundreds of thousands of people could face hunger in the months ahead, and a new storm bringing fresh flooding will further complicate efforts to recover.

Cyclone Kenneth could bring heavy rains and flooding to northeastern Mozambique, which was not hit by the earlier storm, and southern Tanzania, which told coastal residents to flee. The Pacific Disaster Center has forecast that landfall will occur north of the Mozambican city of Pemba....

This is a map I used last week regarding edge and core forests in Pennsylvania.. (click here)

The edge forests are in red and the green areas are considered core forests. I want to also point to the fact that there is a break in the contiguous forest. The areas where white appears may be a natural geological structure that does not support forests, but, that does not mean it is not fragmented.

The picture shows contiguous forest in the northwest corner and southeast corner, but, there is definitely a break that shows fragmentation.

There are also great many edge forests that interrupt the contiguous forest. Depending on the hardiness of the contiguous forest and the damage the edge forests cause, it can be argued this is a fragmented forest.

Forest fragmentation (click here) is the breaking of large, contiguous, forested areas into smaller pieces of forest; typically these pieces are separated by roads, agriculture, utility corridors, subdivisions, or other human development. It usually occurs incrementally, beginning with cleared patches here and there – think Swiss cheese – within an otherwise unbroken expanse of tree cover.

Over time, those non-forest patches tend to multiply and expand until eventually the forest is reduced to scattered, disconnected forest islands. The surrounding non-forest lands and land uses seriously threaten the health, function, and value of the remaining forest.

Any large-scale canopy disturbance affects a forest, but it is important to distinguish between a forest fragmented by human infrastructure development and a forest of mixed ages and varied canopy closure that results from good forest management. The former is typically much more damaging to forest health and habitat quality, usually with permanent negative effects, whereas the latter may cause only temporary change in the forest....


The LENO tower comes up out of the canopy near the Tombigbee River aquatic field site 

This is a forest in Alabama. It is beautiful. The tower is an observation tower and used by forest personnel and scientists. This is a good picture of an unbroken canopy, except, for the tower. All forests these days are often touched by people for a variety of reasons. This reason, is a tower that will help monitor that beautiful canopy.

This is not normal. This is a climate crisis.

April 17, 2019

Jackson, Miss. — With three more tornadoes confirmed Friday from an April 18 outbreak, (click here) the National Weather Service now says 43 tornadoes hit Mississippi that day, and 75 for the year.

The one-day amount alone equals Mississippi’s annual average of 43 tornadoes during the years 1991 through 2010. The most tornadoes ever recorded in a single year in the state were 109 in 2008.

Forecasters also confirmed on Friday that a tornado with top winds of 90 mph (145 kph) hit the Kiln area on the Mississippi Gulf Coast on Thursday....

How long has this been the case?

The Forest Service Web server (click here) is currently undergoing routine maintenance or has encountered an unexpected problem. We are working to bring the Web server back online as swiftly as possible.

We apologize for any inconvenience that this downtime may have caused.

Until this site is available again, we encourage you to contact your local Forest Service office for the information you need.

Where is the oversight to be sure the people receive the services they pay for?

It's Sunday Night (click here for news article - thank you)

It's Sunday Night

Room to Grow (click here for official Facebook site - thank you)

"Room to Grow" by Adrienne Young

She's a buckskin baby made of silk and steel
Daughter of her Mother's heart
With a Daddy in the wool
Future farmer of a brand new start
She could've been a supermodel or a rich man's queen
Livin up on easy street
But the call of the wild
And the solid earth beneath her feet
Seemed to complete her, let her
See into her soul
Where to pastures greener
Where there's room enough to grow

Well it's back to where the red fern knows
The sweetness of the mountain rose
And the land she laughs at all this wood and wire
We all outgrow the skin we're in
But we can weave, we will mend
Our stitch by stitch, row by row
We're making sure there's room enough to grow
Leaves were blowing in the pumpkins fattening in the field
She saw a 'we got apples' sign
Then turned down a road never knowing what she might find
He was sittin on his tractor when she caught his eye
He gave a wave and walked her way
He was all breath and britches, hair the color of the sun on hay
Through winter's hunger
Spring and summer overflow
With love free to wander where there's room enough to grow

Well it's back to where the red fern knows
The sweetness of the mountain rose
And the land she laughs at all this wood and wire
We all outgrow the skin we're in
But we can weave, we will mend
Our stitch by stitch, row by row
We're making sure there's room enough to grow
Leaves were blowing in the pumpkins fattening in the field
She saw a 'we got apples' sign
Then turned down a road never knowing what she might find
He was sittin on his tractor when she caught his eye
He gave a wave and walked her way
He was all breath and britches, hair the color of the sun on hay
Through winter's hunger
Spring and summer overflow

Room enough to grow
With love free to wander where there's room enough to grow

Chabad of Poway Rabbi says call from Trump was 'so comforting'

Rabbi Yisroel Goldstein gave a magnificent testimony of Lori Kaye. His heart is broken. He is a strong man, but, a loss of such a wonderful person is an obvious loss in his life.

Altogether there were five shootings on April 17, 2019. (click here)

Deranged lies and dangerous constituents.

There was another synagogue killing yesterday on the last day of Passover. Due to that Trump strongly came out against anti-semitism. At the very time, he demonized women and abortion. His constituency is stimulated by hate and anger. He knows it and his speeches revolve around hate of the other; either White Nationalists/Supremacists, Women and abortion or immigration. The Florida bomber stated in a letter to the judge that "...attending a Trump rally was a new found drug." (click here)

April 27, 2019

By Meg Wagner and Holmes Lybrand

President Trump (click here) falsely claimed that babies in Wisconsin can be "executed" after the Democratic governor Tony Evers said he would veto a bill that would require doctors to provide medical care to babies born alive after a failed abortion attempt or face a large fine or/and imprisonment.

"But your Democrat governor here in Wisconsin, shockingly, stated that he will veto legislation that protects Wisconsin babies born alive. The baby is born, the mother meets with the doctor, they take care of the baby, they wrap the baby beautifully, and then the doctor and the mother determine whether or not they will execute the baby," Trump said.

Trump's claim that mothers and doctors are permitted to execute a baby after it leaves the womb is incorrect. The bill he is referring to would mandate that health professionals do all they could to keep a baby alive if it was "born alive" and would penalize anyone who lets a baby die....